August 2023 Board Update
Board Approves 2024 Operating Budget and Electric Rate Adjustments
The Board of Public Utilities has approved the Fiscal Year 2024 Operating Budget which will be presented to City Council on Tuesday, September 5, for first reading with the second reading scheduled for Monday, September 18. The proposed operating budget provides disbursement authority in the amount of $697,894,270 and focuses on the replacement of infrastructure to provide reliability and safety to each system, while maintaining affordability. The budget includes fuels, capital projects, and non-capital operational expenses. City Utilities Fiscal Year is from October 1 through September 30.
Council will also receive a request from the Board of Public Utilities, to approve a three-year adjustment in electric rates to cover rising capital, operational and material costs of the electric system. The requested series of rate adjustments would begin on April 1, 2024, with a 4.8% rate adjustment. April 1, 2025, and 2026, would see adjustments of 4.0%, and 3.9% respectively.
“The reliability and integrity of each business unit is funded separately and over the past few years several factors delayed this series of electric rate adjustments,” said Gary Gibson, City Utilities President – CEO. “Inflation and supply chain issues have contributed to the increased cost of materials and operation of the electric system and now requires that we ask for these adjustments to continue providing exceptional services to our community.”
Once the requested series of electric rate adjustments are in effect, residential customers with normal monthly usage of 900 kWh could see a total increase of approximately $15 per month. The most recent electric rate adjustment occurred in October 2016.
In a recent comparison among peer cities of electric service cost, City Utilities ranked number one with the lowest cost for normal monthly usage, and it is expected that CU will remain in the top three lowest cost providers when this series of rate adjustments is completed in April 2026.
